Cusi says some people 'dramatizing' rotational brownouts

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi on Friday dismissed the information that the recent brownouts in Luzon had lasted for ten or 11 hours in some areas.

During a congressional hearing, Cusi said some individuals are dramatizing the issue and were causing panic to the public. He said brownouts in Luzon areas only lasted for a maximum of three hours.

"Contrary naman po sa sinasabi, dahil makikita po natin, ang sinasabi po, some people are dramatizing that there were ten or 11 hours of brownout, 'yan po mapapatunayan natin sa records ng Meralco, makikita po maximum of two hours, if not three hours," Cusi stressed.

(Contrary to what others say, some people are dramatizing that there were ten or 11 hours of brownout but Meralco records will show that it only lasted for  a maximum of two, if not three hours.)

"Napakakuwan po to dramatize, to put panic into the heads of the people. Lahat po ginagawa ng lahat ng industry players para makuwan po 'yan (The industry players are doing everything to address the situation)," he added.

The Energy chief did not specify who were the ones who supposedly "dramatized" the duration of the rotational brownouts.

The National National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) had placed the Luzon grid under Red and Yellow alerts on May 31, June 1 and 2 as demand spiked but power supply was deficient due to outages of several plants.

It has warned that rotational brownouts will be implemented for the entire first week of June because of the thin power supply resulting from planned and unplanned outages of several power plants.

On Thursday, the Luzon power grid is under normal system condition, the Department of Energy said.

According to Cusi, power supply is sufficient, however, four plants have been damaged, resulting in brownouts.

"Ito pong pagkawala the last two days ng supply is because po 'yung pagkasabay-sabay ng pagkasira noong apat na malalaking planta po, that we lost around 2,000 megawatts sa supply po," Cusi said.

"It doesn't mean that we don't have capacity, we have the capacity but unfortunately bumagsak nga lang po 'yung planta (the plants shut down)," he added.—AOL, GMA News